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Lebanon: Central Bank to Discuss Forensic Audit with Alvarez & Marsal

A view of Lebanon's Central Bank building in Beirut. Reuters file photo
A view of Lebanon's Central Bank building in Beirut. Reuters file photo
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Lebanon: Central Bank to Discuss Forensic Audit with Alvarez & Marsal

A view of Lebanon's Central Bank building in Beirut. Reuters file photo
A view of Lebanon's Central Bank building in Beirut. Reuters file photo

Lebanon's central bank is ready to facilitate a forensic audit process by Alvarez & Marsal and will discuss this in a virtual meeting with the restructuring company on April 6, it said in a statement on Thursday.

Alvarez & Marsal pulled out of the audit procedure in November, saying it had not received the information it required, prompting parliament in December to lift banking secrecy for one year.

The audit is on a list of reforms that foreign donors have demanded before helping Lebanon out of its grave financial crisis, rooted in decades of state waste and corruption.

Last year French President Emmanuel Macron proposed a road map to break the political stalemate in the former French protectorate. Macron has been pressing Lebanese politicians to form a cabinet made up of non-partisan specialists that can work on urgent reforms to extract Lebanon from the financial crisis worsened by the Aug. 4 explosion that devastated Beirut.

Those efforts have led to nowhere as Lebanon’s politicians continue to bicker about the shape and size of a new cabinet while the country is mired in the worst economic crisis in its modern history — a situation exacerbated by pandemic restrictions.

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Putin Says Recession in Russia 'Must Not Be Allowed to Happen'

Putin wants officials to keep a 'close eye on all indicators of the health of our industries, companies and even individual enterprises'. Olga MALTSEVA / AFP
Putin wants officials to keep a 'close eye on all indicators of the health of our industries, companies and even individual enterprises'. Olga MALTSEVA / AFP
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Putin Says Recession in Russia 'Must Not Be Allowed to Happen'

Putin wants officials to keep a 'close eye on all indicators of the health of our industries, companies and even individual enterprises'. Olga MALTSEVA / AFP
Putin wants officials to keep a 'close eye on all indicators of the health of our industries, companies and even individual enterprises'. Olga MALTSEVA / AFP

President Vladimir Putin on Friday urged officials not to let Russia fall into recession "under any circumstances", as some in his own government warned of a hit to economic growth.

Economists have warned for months of a slowdown in the Russian economy, with the country posting its slowest quarterly expansion in two years for the first quarter of 2025, reported AFP.

The Kremlin has said this was to be expected after two years of rapid growth as it ramped up military expenditure to fund the Ukraine campaign, but officials including the country's economy minister have raised alarm about possible pain ahead.

"Some specialists and experts are pointing to the risks of stagnation and even a recession," Putin told attendees at Russia's flagship economic forum in Saint Petersburg.

"This must not be allowed to happen under any circumstances," he said.

"We need to pursue a competent, well-thought-out budgetary, tax and monetary policy," he added.

The Russian economy grew in 2023 and 2024 despite the West's sweeping sanctions, with massive state spending on the military powering a robust expansion.

But analysts have long warned that heavy public investment in the defense industry is no longer enough to keep Russia's economy growing and does not reflect a real increase in productivity.

At his address to the forum on Friday, Putin was upbeat about Russia's economic prospects and denied the economy was being driven solely by the defense and energy industries.

"Yes, of course, the defense industry played its part in this regard, but so did the financial and IT industries," he said.

He said the economy needed "balanced growth" and called on officials to keep a "close eye on all indicators of the health of our industries, companies and even individual enterprises."